I’m not surprised and think it’s a positive omen for mHealth innovators that the winners of the competition both ended up being variants on the smartphone physical.

It’s been fascinating to follow this X Prize competition as it took a bold direction change etc especially as a few of the teams that were attempting to win it had asked me for help. I know of no more efficient way to get affluent researchers to commit themselves to finding a solution but I think the financial model could be better designed (eg. 300 teams paid in $25,000 entry fees to join the competition – generating $7.5 million before it even started) to encourage ideas/attempts from less well funded competitors. Imagine if 7000 entry bids had come in?